Lecture 6

Question 1

Definition of memory

Answer 1

The ability to store information, to consolidate it, and to retrieve it at a later point in time.

Question 2

Clive Wearing

Answer 2

No hippocampal-dependent formation of long-term memory.

• Anterograte and retrograde amnesia.
• He is left with a few seconds of memory.

Question 3

Items have to pass through 3 stages before they can be remembered

Answer 3

1. Sensory memory
2. Short term memory
3. Long term memory

Question 4

Sensory memory

Answer 4

Kept for a few seconds or less.

Question 5

Short term memory

Answer 5

Non-sensory (recoded) information can enter the STM where it is kept between 15-20 seconds and fades without rehearsal.

• Repetition can ensure that information is retained in STM.
• The average number of meaningful elements we can hold is 7 (+/- 2),

Question 6

Long term memory

Answer 6

If information is retained long enough in STM chances increase for storage in LTM.

• Spans hours to years.
• During recall information is retrieved from LTM to STM.

Question 7

Visual sensory memory (iconic memory)

Answer 7

A fast decaying store of visual information.

• Iconic memory decays in about +-1 second (max).

Question 8

Roger Sperling

Answer 8

1. A grid of 12 letters presented for 50 ms cannot be successfully recalled (4-5 items).
2. When a tone was presented after the grid informing patients about the row of letters that needed to be recalled (partial report cueing technique), recall improved.
3. When the tone was delayed, performance dropped.

Question 9

Auditory sensory memory (echoic memory)

Answer 9

A fast decaying auditory information.

• Echoic memory decays in about 5 seconds.

Question 10

Primacy and recency effect
(when is it larger?)

Answer 10

Items at the beginning and the end of the list are remembered better than items in the middle.

• Recency is larger for auditory.

Question 11

Chunking

Answer 11

Combining small pieces of information into clusters (e.g., phone numbers).

• Meaningful chunks often have an LTM component.

Question 12

Working memory components (Baddeley & Hitch)

Answer 12

1. Visuospatial sketchpad.
2. Phonological loop.
3. Central executive.
4. Episodic buffer

Question 13

Visuospatial sketchpad

Answer 13

For visual and spatial information.

• Necessary for mental rotation.

Question 14

Phonological loop

Answer 14

~2 seconds that stores verbal information and maintains information via articulatory rehearsal.

• A loop expressed in time rather than in the number of items explains why long spoken words are harder to remember.

Question 15

Central executive

Answer 15

Controls both phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad.

An attentional system for coordination and output (action).

• Informed by the episodic buffer.

Question 16

Episodic buffer

Answer 16

A temporary storage where information from LTM is integrated with STM.

Question 17

Info in LTM is stored in 3 codes

Answer 17

1. Verbal
2. Visual
3. Motor

Question 18

Verbal (LTM code)

Answer 18

Semantic level (meaning)

Question 19

Visual (LTM code)

Answer 19

Mental images that are not easily translated into language (like faces).

• Related to photographic memory and eidetic memory.

Question 20

Motor

Answer 20

Motor programs that underlie activities such as speaking, walking, etc.

Question 21

3 stages of remembering

Answer 21

1. Encoding
2. Storage
3. Retrieval

Question 22

Encoding

Answer 22

Transforming information into an enduring memory.

Question 23

Storage

Answer 23

Maintaining memories over time.

Question 24

Retrieval

Answer 24

Bringing stored information back into consciousness.

Question 25

Use of schemas

Answer 25

Mental models of the world that helps us to encode information in a meaninful way (for us).

Question 26

Elaborative encoding

Answer 26

Relating new information to knowledge that is already in memory.

• Verbal memory increases with processing depth.

Question 27

Visual imagery encoding

Answer 27

Storing new information by converting it into mental pictures.

• When objects in a visual scene interact, they become easier to remember.

Question 28

Organisational encoding

Answer 28

Categorising items based on relationships between them.

• E.g., a waitress categorises an order based on drinks, main courses and desserts, whereas the restaurant guests would organise items based on individuals.
• Recall improves when items are organised into multi-level categories.

Question 29

Wilder Penfield

Answer 29

Canadian neurosurgeon who performed the first brain surgeries on patients with epilepsy. He stimulated a consciously awake patient’s brain with electrical current. By doing so, he discovered the motor and somatosensory cortex (the homunculi), but also that stimulation of the temporal cortex could evoke ‘lively memories’.

Question 30

Karl Lashley

Answer 30

Studied the engram (the physical representation of a memory trace) by removing parts of the brain in animals and subsequently examined whether they had forgot earlier trained responses or whether learning became impaired.

• Rats were trained to find exits in a maze.
• Lesions affected acquisition and retention of knowledge, but the location of the removed part of the cortex did not affect performance.

Question 31

Patient HM

Answer 31

In 1953, there was an accidental breakthrough: The case of Henry Molaison who had his hippocampus removed. He was unable to form new memories - anterograde amnesia

Question 32

Hebb’s rule

Answer 32

What fires together, wires together.

Question 33

Long term potentiation (LTP)
Where is it critical?

Answer 33

A persistent strengthening of synapses based on patterns of activity.

• Is critical in the hippocampus for memory formation.

Question 34

Initiating LTP (+ blocking)

Answer 34

Glutamate from presynaptic (sending) neurons must attach to the NMDA receptors in the postsynaptic (receiving) neuron.

• When the post synaptic neuron is not excited, its NMDA receptors are blocked and LTP cannot happen.

Question 35

Von Restoroff effect

Answer 35

Distinctive events are easier to remember.

• 4 8 1 7 A 5 3
• The A is easier to remember.

Question 36

Encoding specificity principle (Tulving & Thomson)

Answer 36

A retrieval cue is most effective when it closely matches the original encoding context.